Can you See More Clearly than a Blind Man (Mark 10: 46-52)

People tell me that if you are unfortunate enough to lose some or even all of your vision, that you other senses become more finally tuned. You are able to access perceptions and insights by being more attuned to you other senses.

In the New Testament there is a story of a blind man who appears to have particularly heightened insights when it comes to understanding other people. It seems that even though he was blind he could see things that others couldn’t. I would like us today to look at this story and see if we can see as as clearly as this blind man.

The story on the surface is a rather simple one. But in considering the story a little more closely we shall see, I trust, that there are some powerful truths contained therein. The story begins with Jesus in Jericho.

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means ‘son of Timaeus’), was sitting by the roadside begging.

(Mark 10: 46)

So, Jesus and his disciples are passing through Jericho on their way to Jerusalem, which is about 16 miles away, all up hill, by the way. They are travelling from a point just a few feet above sea level by the Jordan river up to Jerusalem which lies about 2600 feet above sea level.

The city of Jericho was home to about 20,000 priests, (You heard me right) 20,000. The Hasmoneans, the inhabitants of Jericho at that time were a dynasty descending from a priestly group and considered all of their adult males to be member of the Priestly class. Now these events are taking place just before the Passover, so all of these these Priests would be needed at Jerusalem. So, when Jesus arrives at Jericho most of the population would be departing or would already be on their way to Jerusalem along with 1000’s of other pilgrims, all on their way to celebrate the Passover.

We are then told that as Jesus and His disciples are leaving Jericho (with the crowds) a blind man named Bartimaeus appears, and this happens.

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’

(Mark 10: 47)

So, Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is passing through but look carefully at what he says. “Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me”. It seems to me that this blind man has perfect spiritual sight. In light of what we have seen so far in the Gospel of Mark , it appears that most people were unable to see who Jesus really was. But here is a blind man who sees very clearly exactly who Jesus is. He doesn’t refer to him as Jesus of Nazareth, rather he calls him Jesus, the “Son of David”. This blind man could see spiritually, and he could see that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, and if he was the Messiah then he would have power, and no doubt power enough even to heal a blind man. Let’s pause for a moment and talk about spiritual blindness and spiritual insight. You see the bible teaches that we are all born spiritually blind. 

II Corinthians chapter 4 says.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

(II Cor 4:4)

Spiritually blind people can look straight at Jesus Christ, and they don’t see who he is. Actually, did you know there is a group in America called Atheists for Jesus. Let me read from the website.

There are currently two vastly different versions of Christianity being practiced in the United States. The first group believes that the way to get to heaven is through a belief in the sacrificial death and supposed resurrection of Jesus the Christ, but we don’t see it that way. The second group believes that the proper path is defined by the admonition to "love your neighbour as yourself". 

Wow these guys are looking right at him and can’t see  who he is. I’

They continue later in the article;

When I we say that we are atheists "for Jesus", We do not mean to imply in any way that we have converted to Christianity or that we believe Jesus to be the Son of God. What we mean is that I have come to have a great deal of respect for the teachings of Jesus. Our respect for Jesus is not based on the Cross, and not on His death and supposed resurrection, but on His teachings.

There we have a perfect example of people who looks straight at Jesus but remains spiritually blind. This man looks at Jesus and doesn’t see him as anything other than a wise moral teacher. That a clear example of spiritual blindness. However, there is an even deeper level of blindness that some people suffer from. There are some people who look right at Jesus and immediately see Him as the son of God.They can see that he died on the cross for the sin of the world, they even believe that he rose from the dead. Yet they are still spiritually blind when it comes to understanding what it means to be a believer.

You see, they believe lots of true and good things about Jesus, but then they add to that, extra things you need to do or believe in order to get to heaven. Like joining a particular church or the most popular one is to act religious all the time. Just try and do all the religious stuff and let God keep the score, and if you have a high enough score maybe you can make it. I myself have never quite understood how their scoring system works. Sometimes people keep the score by comparing themselves to other people. However, in my view, when people do this, they set the bar way to low. Someone once said to me, “at least I am not a murderer”, I’ve never killed anybody. Is that the standard for being a Christian now. Some people think, maybe I’m alright with God because there are other people out there much worse than me. Even this blind man could see that Jesus was the Son of David, the Messiah. So, he cries out, Son of David, have mercy on me. Then a very interesting thing happens.

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’

(Mark 10: 48)

The crowd tell him to shut up, but the man we see just shouted, “all the more”. At this point in the story the text then tells us.

Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So, they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’

(Mark 10: 49)

This is an interesting turn of events, verse 48 the crowd tell him to shut up, verse 49 says the crowd say. On your feet He’s calling you. One minute this crowd is rebuking the guy, the next minute they are encouraging him to do the very thing they just rebuked him for.

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. (Then Jesus says to him). ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Teacher “I want to see”.

(Mark 10: 50-51) 

Think about that for a moment…. What do you want me to do for you?  Do you think Jesus already knew what this man’s needs were, when He asked, “what do you want me to do for you”. Of course, he did. In fact, everybody knew what was wrong with this man, in fact He probably didn’t need his power as the living God to figure this one out. Yet he still chooses to say, “What do you want me to do for you”. There is a verse in the bible that says we do not have because we do not ask. (James Ch 4) God is trying to teach us not only to trust in Him, but to ask. So, he asks the man, “What do you want me to do for you?” The reply from the blind man was, ‘I want to see.’ Teacher “I want to see”. The Jesus says to him.

‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

(Mark 10: 52)

Right, there is the first insight I want us to see. The man not only had faith in who Jesus was, but also in His ability to heal him, and that made him well. As I pointed out at the beginning of our time together today, that we are all born blind spiritually. We have a spiritual problem that needs solving just as urgent as any physical problem we might feel needs solving. This blind man physical problem was dealt with by faith. He knew not only who Jesus was, but he also trusted in Him, and he was healed physically, and when we see who Jesus is, and trust in Him we to are healed, healed from spiritual blindness. But there is more going on here that a miraculous physical healing.

I have looked at this text several times before in my life but as I prepared this message this time, something struck me. That there was a second insight that this blind man had. Look at the last part of the closing verse, it says; “Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road”. So not only did this man have faith and act upon it, but immediately after he chose to follow Jesus. Here is this blind guy who finally has had his sight restored. He could now get a job, he could now work, he no longer would need to be dependent on others, but he chooses to follow Jesus. Clearly, he followed him physically, but I am sure it also means he followed him spiritually. Jesus said to him, go your way, yet instead ne follows Jesus.

The man had decided that his way, was now the Lord’s way. That’s the second insight to be gasped hold of here. Has your way, become the Lord’s way? In this case it clearly did. Here is a blind man who had spiritual insight into who Jesus actually was. He wouldn’t let the crowd stop him, because he had faith that the Lord would heal him and when he was healed, he didn’t stop there because as a response to what the Lord had done for him, he followed the Lord and His way became the Gods way.

I began this morning by asking, if you can see as clearly as a blind man. For that matter, do you hear as well as some deaf people. Many of us don’t. Have you had an eye-opening experience this morning. This man had his spiritual eyes opened, he saw who Jesus was and Jesus opened his eyes physically and with deep gratitude he choose to follow the Lord. Are you thankful for what the Lord has done for you? What then does your thankfulness prompt you to do? If you are grateful, if you are thankful, what should we do? Didn’t you mother teach you to say thank-you. Well then say it to the Lord. However, if you are really thankful maybe it should not mean just saying something, maybe it should also mean doing something. Praise and give thanks to the Lord, for all that he has done, but if you stop there, then maybe you have a spiritual vision problem. Even this blind man saw enough to see that because of what God had done for him he should follow him from that point forward. Thereafter His way became the Lord’s way.

Paul tells us this in the 12th chapter of Romans; (OHP 12)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

(Romans 12:1)

When we are thankful Paul suggests that we offer our lives as a sacrifice, a “living sacrifice”, and as someone once pointed out a living sacrifice can anytime choose to crawl off the alter. It takes spiritual vision to say. Jesus is Lord. It takes a clearer spiritual vision to recognise what the Lord has done and say thank-you. It takes an even deeper spiritual vision to say, it no longer my way, but the Lords way.

Paul here is reminding us that if we are recipients of Gods mercy, we ought to do something with it and doing something means presenting ourselves as obedient to him and thinking like he does. 

That is the spiritual vison of a blind man. Can you see as clearly as he saw things that day? Are you thankful for what the Lord has done in your life, well then, what are you going to do about it?

In October of 1942 Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B17 aircraft with instruction to deliver an important message to Gen Douglas Macarthur (Chief of Staff of the US Army) In WWII somewhere over the South Pacific a flying fortress plane lost radar contact with the aircraft carrier and became lost. The plane ditched in the Pacific Ocean, for nearly a month Rickenbacker and the crew fought the water and poor weather conditions. Their raft they were floating on was just 9 feet by 5 and for many nights it was continually bumped by circling sharks. Their small rations only lasted a few days, and they soon came to realise  the most threatening of all the threats to them was starvation. It would seem after another week only a miracle could sustain them, and according to Rickenbacker a miracle occurred.

In Rickenbacker’s own words he said “ We had a little daily service one afternoon we read a scripture, we prayed a prayer asking for deliverance and we sang a hymn of praise. Then in the glare of the sun with my hat pulled down over my eyes I dozed off. As I dozed, I felt something land on my head, I knew it was a seagull. Everybody looked at it, but no-one said a word. They were all staring at me wide eyed at me with a seagull perched on my hat and they all looked at me knowing that a Seagull meant a little bit of food, if only I could just catch it. I lifted my weary hand up caught the seagull, who seemed completely uninterested in flying away. It didn’t attempt to fly away or struggle it was almost it willingly offered itself as a sacrifice. But the seagull became much more than just a quick meal. Its flesh was eaten, it internals where used as bait, they began to catch fish. The were over 100 miles from land, but that one bird not only sustained them, but it revived their hope, and they were eventually rescued 21 days later.

Rickenbacker retired to the Florida coast and ever since that event in 1942 for 30 years every evening he went down the beach and fed a bucket of shrimp to the seagulls. Paul Harvey in his biography of Rickenbacker says, it was gratitude that prompted that old man to visit that old broken pier and feed the seagulls every night until he died in 1973. The seagull came to recognise him and would flock around him every night and he would feed them. Also, everybody in the town new why he did it. He did it to testify to the miracle that God brought about that day 30 years earlier and how he believed that seagull marked a sacrifice that was made that brought about their deliverance and eventual rescue.